how to get more resources where you need them

[Data]

I was thinking about Das123's newest thread but this is in many more others, the problem is well known: we just don't have every time the needed resources for building ships where we'd need them or when we'd need them and our spaceports get stalled.
The way DW works you need to build proactively a sound enough economy to be able to satisfy demand but even then large scale wars can really put your freighters and construction yards to the test.
This is the problem.

Now for the mania intermezzo. Yes, I will again refer to MOO2 which has this game breaker feature where you could order a ship and in the last turn before it was supposed to be finished you'd order another one and get it. I always considered this an exploit as you just put your workers to build the most large and costly desing and never finish it; when you needed a fleet you just switched the orders and bam...instant win.

Surprisingly enough, DW makes this seem more realistic. Ships are a sum of components, right? So as long as you build the components what does it matter which ship gets them? If you monitor the cargo bays at a construction yard you even see the finished components along with the resources as cargo.

Solution 1
Since components are treated like cargo until the construction yard actually assembles them into the ship why not order ships and then remove the order in such a way as to remain with the components for future needs?

Advantages:
1) the components will not need to be manufactured, just assembled, so faster construction (if than was even needed)
2) you can do this as early as you like so that you get a huge stockpile of components for future ships

Disadvangates:
1) hard or even impossible to manage and get the right time to abort
2) not all components will be available as some will already be assembled
3) by the time you'd need them newer ones will be available. Still, this would help as you build the older design and then waste a little time upgrading it.

There are other implications I won'd go into but basically it's to much effort for the end result. Ergo...

Solution2
Like in MOO2 you just build the bigest design you can at that time but you make it resource oriented, you put the components with the highest amounts of rare resources for example and get as many of those components as you can. When you have a shortage somewhere you just retire the ship there and get the resources from it.

Advantages:
1) Instant giant resource reserves
2) They are also mobile so you can send them wherever they are needed
3) You'll help with the distribution algorithm for the freighters but this becomes irrelevant in this scenario as you can now avoid scarcity by taking control over resource deployment yourself.

Disadvantages:
Waiting for you guys to find them as I'm too taken with the idea atm to see them. [:)]

[RaffleSnaffle]

Monitoring resources was always difficult for me for some reason. I think when you get to the point where you know where exactly you need a certain type of resource and how much you need it you've prolly been playing for awhile. It seems something I will ecentually learn, but a lil complex atm to take all in. Good idea tho Data. Never thought of doing that [:)]

But I usually just que a bunch of stuff up and play the waiting game till my freighters do their jobs. [:D]

[Mofouler]

I think there should be a tab in the game or maybe something that pops up that tells your a certain station needs a specific resource :/. I think we should also be able to control freigters and maybe priortize them sometimes so that we can get certain resources to areas faster.

[DasTactic]

Being able to prioritise locations would be cool.

[Data]

Yes, it's something tha't already requested by some of us and already wishlisted...not to break this great feature of the game which is the state/private distinction. We could use a small number of state controled freighters or we could rent them ocassionally from the private sector; the potential is there to explore it.

[Bingeling]

The MMOs thing sure reeks of exploit.

And if you should be able to store components at planets for future use, you should also have to pay maintenance for them...